LAWYER ENDING A CAREER THAT SHAPED PINELLAS

TBO.COM

By CARLOS MONCADA

CLEARWATER, Feb. 15, 2006 - Timothy A. Johnson Jr. never set out to represent high-powered developers in multimillion-dollar real estate deals.

In fact, his first land-use case was working for ordinary homeowners opposed to a development in their neighborhood.

"I was successful," the 60-year-old Clearwater lawyer recalled. "This was back in the mid-'70s when that almost never happened in Pinellas County."

Such cases, though, have been few and far between for Johnson, who has built a reputation as one of the Bay area's pre-eminent zoning and land-use lawyers primarily by representing clients such as U.S. Home and The Sembler Co., one of the nation's largest shopping center builders.

Now the man who helped mold the face of the state's most densely developed county is retiring this fall and moving to California. He and wife, Clair, have bought a $1.9 million house in Woodside, near San Francisco, to be near their children and grandchildren.

"I've done just about everything I can do in this profession," the avuncular, bespectacled Johnson said at his law office, Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns. "I've loved it. It's been great to me, but I just made a personal decision that I would like to not do it anymore."

Johnson will have to pull up deep roots when he leaves in September. His family was among the county's first settlers.

As Johnson tells it, his great-grandfather, Charles Wharton Johnson, ran a mail boat between Cedar Key and Key West when, in 1868, he ran aground off Clearwater and saw the high bluff.

He set up a homestead on the property and tried to grow oranges, but the land wasn't suited for an orange grove. So he swapped it to Henry B. Plant for what now is Largo Central Park, and Plant built the Belleview Biltmore on the bluff.

Johnson's father, Tim Sr., who died in 1991 at age 85, was a former "Mr. Clearwater," known for his years of community service.

The elder Johnson, a former Clearwater city commissioner, ran the Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park before the family sold the cemetery on Sunset Point Road about 10 years ago. Like his father, Johnson has supported civic and philanthropic causes, most notably Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Today the Johnsons are "sort of dying off," he said. He has relatives "here and there," including a cousin who is leading the fight against Johnson's effort to rezone a Pinellas Park mobile home park for condominium development.

Friends And Enemies
As often is the case, Johnson engages in acrimonious battles with development opponents, some of whom no doubt will be glad to see him go, he acknowledged.

"I'm sure there are people who aren't happy with what I've done in particular cases," he said. "But I don't lose any sleep over it. Hopefully, I've got a lot more friends."

One of them is Circuit Judge George Greer, a land-use lawyer before he was elected to the Pinellas County Commission in 1984. Greer recalled that Johnson was ecstatic on election night, presumably because it would mean more legal business for him.

"He kind of almost leaped into the air like Mr. Bojangles, clicked his heels, hands over his head, and said, 'It's all mine,'

" Greer said. "I looked at him and said, 'I thought you were supporting me because it was good government.'

"

Johnson began his legal career at age 23, joining what now is the Tampa-based Carlton Fields law firm in 1969. He started his own practice in 1973 with John Blakely, who left the firm after moving to Naples about seven years ago.

In the late 1970s, Johnson faced what he said was perhaps his most competitive legal contest. He was hired to represent a little-known cable television company called Vision Cable, now Bright House Networks, to get franchises from local governments throughout Pinellas.

"We were successful against all odds," Johnson recalled. "We were up against huge companies with unlimited budgets, and money was no object. It was David versus Goliath."

After that, Johnson said, he started getting calls from developers who figured that after winning such a fierce cable fight, he probably could get a piece of land rezoned.

"And that's how I got into that business - in a big way," he said.

A Mix Of Law, Politics
By mixing his law practice with politics - his firm has contributed thousands of dollars to political campaigns - Johnson has made himself one of the area's most influential lawyers.

He usually represents developers of large or controversial projects in hearings before government bodies, particularly the Pinellas County Commission and the Clearwater City Commission.

"He usually accomplishes what he sets out to do, both because of his ability and because he's influential in the community," said Pinellas Planning Council Director David Healey, a former Clearwater planning director who often has clashed with Johnson.

Healey said he is troubled by some recent cases where Johnson has prevailed despite objections from county planners.

In one, Johnson's efforts will allow a developer to build hundreds of town houses on a Clearwater golf course near the popular Dogwater Cafe. In another, Johnson was able to secure a commercial rezoning of limited industrial land in Seminole so Sembler can build a shopping center.

"There have been a number of instances where he has handled cases that resulted in change that I don't know are in the long-term best interests of the county," Healey said. "But he did it effectively and forthrightly and within the bounds of the process."

Johnson said whoever is on the other side of him usually thinks what he is doing is not in the county's best interests - whether he's representing developers fighting homeowners or homeowners fighting developers.

"You can't please everybody. I learned that a long time ago," he said. "So don't try. Do what you think's right and move on."